High reflectance is a source of loss of performance in solar cells. For example in multi-crystalline Si solar cells, high reflectance generally constitutes a ≈8% loss in performance due to optical loss.
Black Silicon (BS) nanostructuring allows to achieve low reflectance due to the resulting graded refractive index at the Si-air interface.
Metal-assisted wet etching black silicon process for texturing silicon surface and reactive ion etching (RIE) are known method for texturing silicon surface. RIE-texturing has so far not been proven superior to standard wet texturing, primarily as a result of lower power conversion efficiency due to increased surface recombination.
Hence, an improved silicon solar cell combining low reflectance and high performance would be advantageous.
Several studies on optical optimizations aiming at reducing high reflectance of surfaces are known. However, these studies have not been implemented into optimal nanostructures for applications in solar cells and solar cells production. Furthermore, optical optimizations aiming at reducing high reflectance of surfaces generally do not address issues related to diffuse light.
Thus, in particular an improved silicon solar cell showing low reflectance that is less dependent on the angle of incidence of the light, such as a more efficient silicon solar cell showing improved efficiency upon irradiation of diffuse light would be advantageous.
Moreover, production costs of solar cells related to optimizations in surface texturing are high.
Thus, an improved method of producing silicon based solar cell allowing to save material and production costs would also be advantageous.